For a recent birthday party for a friend, Beaker, I discovered that his favorite cookie was Oatmeal Raisin. And in the Facebook event for his Surprise Party, I piped up “I can make those”. Not surprisingly when I made them, my son, asked for one but when he found out they were Oatmeal Raisin, he initially turned his nose up at them. A bit later he asked again for one — and loved it.

And tomorrow I’m supposed to teach him how to make them. So Happy Birthday Beaker — you gave my son a new cookie to love.

Note: When I remade these with my son, they were entirely different (thin and crispy versus more moist for the party cookies). I traced this back to when the eggs were added. The party cookies had the eggs added either after the flour or after the oats. The remade batch had the eggs added in the correct order. Go figure; I’m not enough of a chemist to understand this.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter softened but still firm; this is 1/2 pound or 2 sticks
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 heaping tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking power
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 3 cups rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 cups raisins

Steps

Note 1: This recipe makes large cookies and you want large because that way they don’t dry out. Note 2: Follow the directions to rotate the racks when you bake or they will burn. Trust me; one cookie gave its life in a valiant effort to disprove the need to rotate the racks.

  1. Set oven racks to middle and low positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In bowl of stand mixed, beat butter until creamy (its ok the butter consented to this). Add the two sugars and beat until fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated.
  3. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and nutmeg in a separate bowl and mix (this spreads the baking powder out evenly amongst the flour). Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer and beat it until incorporated.
  4. Add in the oats and the raisins and beat until incorporated.
  5. Ready two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  6. Form the dough into 24 1 1/2” balls. Place each ball of dough on the cookie sheet and flatten them so they are about 1/3” to 1/4” thick.
  7. Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, about 22 to 25 minutes. Halfway thru the baking process turn the cookie sheets from front to back and switch them from top to bottom.
  8. Let cool on a rack for 30 minutes before eating.

Recommended Spirit

I have it on good authority that these are excellent paired with Black Strap Rum.